VIACA - Quiet weekend shows cinema bounceback facing early hurdles
The bounceback of movie theaters - after a year where their revenues were decimated in the COVID-19 pandemic - became a key investment story last month amid some widespread loosening of industry restrictions. And while it's not yet Memorial Day (the one-time start of the summer movie season), that story is already losing a bit of its fizzle. There are no wide releases out this weekend, setting up for the slowest weekend at the box office in months. The top film currently playing, horror flick Spiral ([[LGF.A]], [[LGF.B]]), drew just $8.75M in grosses last weekend despite opening in 2,811 theaters, a lackluster performance vs. expectations. It may yet be soon to determine the secular impacts from the industry's heavy lean toward streaming releases and shorter theatrical windows this past year. But year-to-date box office is about 70% below this point in 2020 - and having lapped the start of the
For further details see:
Quiet weekend shows cinema bounceback facing early hurdles